Peace with God

Good Morning

Good Morning and Welcome to Freedom Chapel. My name is Pastor Terry, my wife Michelle and I serve as the lead pastors here at Freedom Chapel. We exist to bring hope to our community we do that by being a Place to Belong, Church for the Whole Family.

If you are new with us this morning would you please take the time fill out that little flap on the side of your bulletin. If you put it in the black boxes by the back door we will make a donation in your name to a local charity and send you cookies. Church can we show our guests some love this morning.

Today is Resurrection Sunday! This is the day that we celebrate one of the most defining points of the Christian Faith that separates Christianity from any other Religion or Philosophy on this earth.

That defining point is the Empty Tomb.

The Empty Tomb

There have been many men that have walked this earth claiming to be God or the Son of God. There have been many men who have been murdered or martyred in the name of their religious beliefs.

Many men have made these claims but only one man fulfilled the 365 prophesies foretelling of the coming savior found in the old testament.

According to Professor of Mathematics Peter Stoner the mathematical probability that one person could fulfill just 8 of these prophecies is 10 to the 17th power.

100,000,000,000,000,000

The probability of Jesus being able to fabricate and fulfill all of those prophesies falsely in impossible.

This Tells us we can believe he is who he says he was. The Son of God.

Many Men have claimed to be the path to God but only one in history was willing to be beaten and put to death in order to create a path to God. Only one in history has predicted his own death and resurrection then fulfilled that prediction.

There is only one Empty Tomb and today we celebrate that Jesus Is Alive. He has Risen!

Once you establish that Jesus is who he says he was and did what he said he would do. You can then begin to believe that he will fulfill in your life what he said he is able to do.

This is the essence of Faith.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Today we want to look at one aspect that Faith in Jesus Christ promises.

PEACE WITH GOD!

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Romans 5:1a (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

Justification is the act of God Whereby He forgives the sin of an unsaved person and credits/assigns to them the righteousness of Christ when through faith they believe.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many of you are here today because a friend or relative invited you to join us to celebrate Easter. Some of you are here for the easter egg hunt and that is ok. Some of you are here today and you have distanced yourself from the church due to past hurts. Some are here today and your struggling to believe that God could love you let alone forgive you. And some of you are here looking for some kind of Hope.

Whatever reason you are here you are welcome. God welcomes you to the table and so do we. Jesus wants to establish in your life through his resurrection Peace with God.

What does it mean to have “peace with God”?

1st this is not a psychological peace?

Not a feeling of inner tranquility or sense of well being or positive feelings

This Peace is not about feelings.

This peace is based off the evidence and what we know about God.

2nd it is not the same as the peace of God.

Peace of God and Peace with God are two different things.

Philippians 4:7 ESV

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There is this peace that we get from God that sweeps in, in the life of the believer when we face difficult circumstances but that is not the same as Peace with God. That peace sweeps over us when we pray.

What Paul is talking about here is a Peace with God.

Your probably thinking Why do I need peace with God? I didn’t know I was at war with him?

What you need to understand is that Mankind in his Unbelieving State is at war with God.

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

This is the very reason that we need a Savior. We needed God to allow Jesus to be Sacrificed on the Cross, Blood Poured out to impart righteousness in our lives when by faith not works we believe.

In order to truly understand the Gospel or Good news we can not overlook the fact that apart from Christ we are at war with God.

In fact the the Book of Romans comes at odds with many of the teachings of our modern times.

One such teaching is Hate the Sin Love the Sinner.

So you end up in this paradigm of thought as how can God both love me in my sin and be at war with me in my sin?

All I can say is God is God and he does not operate like we do. Through out the Bible there are a lot of things about God that to our Human minds contradict themselves.

John Lindell states that almost every great theological truth rests in tension.

Was Jesus God or was He Man? He was both both fully God and Fully Man.

Did God save me or did I call Him

Did the Holy Spirit write the Bible or Did Man

Or the Idea that God is ok with our sinful behaviors that are contrary to His written Word. However the Bible teaches something quite different.

Psalm 7:11–13 NLT

11 God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day. 12 If a person does not repent, God will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. 13 He will prepare his deadly weapons and shoot his flaming arrows.

When we are unrepentant or flippant about the sin areas of our life we are inviting the wrath of God into our lives.

When we ignore our need for Jesus we are under the wrath of God.

John 3:36 ESV

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

This is why it essential that we don’t just say a prayer of salvation but that we begin to work out that salvation as Paul says

Philippians 2:12–13 (ESV)

12b work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

What most people who are still slave to their sin don realize is that their mind is actually hostile or at odds with God!

Romans 8:7 NLT

7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

The reality though is that God Knew we wouldn’t get it, He knew we would mess it up, He knew we would not be reach out for Him because we would never be able to clean ourselves up enough to stand before him. So he sent Jesus before we were cleaned up.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Then you see it again in

Romans 5:10 ESV

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

SO let’s look at today’s text again.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today I want to share with you 4 Truths about Peace with God.

1. When a person has peace with God their mind is at rest about the relationship with God.

2. When a person has been justified and has peace with God they can answer the accusations of their conscience and the Devil.

3. When a person understands justification and the resulting peace with God, they no longer fear death and hell.

Hebrews 2:14–15 NLT

14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

4. When a person Understands justification and peace with God they know that when they sin it doesn’t cancel their relationship with God.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Characteristics of False Peace

1. False peace confuses faith with general belief and agreement.

2. False peace takes sin lightly.

Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

3. False peace is only interested in forgiveness not righteousness.

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Today is Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday. Today represents the culmination of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection from the dead.

Jesus was dead. Like dead dead. The Roman’s made sure he was dead and on the third day He rose again.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are three types of people in this room today.

The person who has never by Faith invited Jesus into their lives and therefore has never known Peace with God.

The person who has wrestled for far to long as a believer and has ignored the facts leaving them in that place of not knowing they can have peace with God.

That person that realizes that they have been living with a False Peace.